A Handbook of Australian Government and Politics 1985-1999

This handbook completes Emeritus Professor Colin Hughes' major reference work on Australian government and politics in the 20th century. It is a sequel to three earlier volumes published in 1968, 1977 and 1986, which have become standard research tools for Australian historians and political scientists.

It details, firstly, all members of all Australian ministries, cabinets and portfolios, with dates and notes, and secondly, voting information (both upper and lower houses of Parliament) for all general elections, Commonwealth, State and Territory, held between 1985 and 1999. It thus gathers together in the one book information which is otherwise scattered through a number of official publications, some not widely available. This consolidation and annotation follows the format established in the three earlier volumes and will join them as an indispensable reference work.

REVIEWS

This is the fourth in a series of major reference works on Australian government and politics in the 20th century and covers the period 1985-99. It is intended to become a standard research tool for Australian historians and political scientists, but would be useful also for a broader readership interested in the historical detail of Australian elections and governments.

The book is divided into two parts. Part I lists Commonwealth Governors-General and State Governors. It also lists Commonwealth and State Cabinets and Portfolios and major statutes enacted during the period relating to Cabinet law. Part II provides details of changes to electoral laws and summaries of election results for the Commonwealth and the States. Brief notes on party leadership changes are also provided for each period.

The election results for the House of Representatives and the Senate and the State lower and upper houses are succinctly and clearly presented to give the reader ready access to the results, including the number of seats contested, the number of voters, the percentage total of vote by each party and independents and the number of seats won by each party and independents.

This is intended to be the last hardcopy publication in the series … The passing into history of this series will be a great loss to the discipline and the researchers who have drawn their sustenance from it.

Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol 239(1), March 2004

This volume concludes Colin Hughes’s self-imposed 40 year task of assembling compendia of Australia’s federal and state electoral results, cabinet lists and lists of governors and governors-general from 1890 to 1999. The final instalment covers the period 1985 to 1999, from Hawke to Howard, Wran to Carr, or Cain to Bracks. It also covers the advent of the Greens and the rise and fall of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. As in previous volumes, changes in electoral law are explained and there are useful explanatory notes. … Researchers in Australian political history will forever be in debt to Colin Hughes for his unrivalled and Herculean contribution.